In Memory

I am sorry to have been out of touch with Wally for so long, until it is too late. He and I and Larry Nilles were inseparable for years--real best buddies. After Wally moved to California, we didn't keep up contacts--isn't that a common sad story?--but he'll always be that smiling, lightning-quick witty kid to me.

Wally inspired me to go to NIU with him; I started in 1963 and he "got de-enrolled" later that year. He still came up to DeKalb to hang out (mostly at McCabe's) and eventually went to SIU and graduated. He spent time in the Army - his father had been a career officer - mostly in Germany, where he met his wife Jennifer. I believe he spent most of his working life at Frito-Lay, the potato chip company. He was in Ohio, maybe when Allan Dooley was there, and ended up at F-L's headquarters in Plano, TX, near Dallas. While I was in Houston (1981-94) we got to visit with Wally and Jenny fairly regularly. Just 2.5 hours up or down I-45. I remember particularly one time having to change planes at Dallas Love Field with a 2 hour layover. Wally worked right down the street from the airport; he picked me up in his Fiat convertible and took me on a short driving tour of Dallas while (legally, at that time) drinking beer from cans purchased from a convenience store! To his dying day, he called all the girls (including my wife Merrily) "Darling" in the most charming, sincere way. That was just one part of his technique for getting the girls to shift gears for him while he kept his arm around them. I believe he was also friends with some guys from CMHS 1962: Paul Jacquin and Richie Thompson.